~ “I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.” Ronald Reagan.

The Shoreham-Wading River Central School District billed taxpayers to the sum of $153,000 for this year’s Shoreham-Wading River High School senior trip to Orlando, Florida, i.e., Disney World to be exact.

Because theirs is a sense of entitlement the trip was billed as a “a priceless educational experience.” Did Shoreham-Wading River Central School District believe for a moment that the expense would go unnoticed?

Taxpayers learned of the expense and last month’s senior trip at a meeting and they are fuming.

In 2016, only 1 in 3 students attended the senior trip costing the school district $10,000. This year 80% of the Class of 2017 which makes up 227 seniors made the four day trip to Disney costing the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District $153,000 (airfare and hotel).

Now, just a month before residents vote on the district’s proposed budget, that decision is at the center of a backlash that drew anger from some taxpayers about the cost of the excursion and left officials scrambling to explain the educational purpose it served.

“It’s a huge stretch to think that the Florida trip, where some of the kids went to Epcot [international theme park], is educational,” said Robert Badalian, a 40-year Shoreham resident, who was at the school board’s April 5 meeting. “I don’t deny that the kids have the opportunity to go, but to think that that is an educational trip — that taxpayers are funding almost its entirety this past year — is just outrageous.”

District officials promised that next year’s trip will be different…

HOWEVER,

…The controversy has its roots in discussions that began last summer, days after Lederer became interim schools chief. The district’s attorney, who had taken a closer reading of state law, said he believed the Disney journey technically was an educational field trip — and as such, the district had to pick up most of the tab, Lederer said. There was a “change made in philosophy, and it ended up escalating the size of the trip,” board president John Zukowski said at the meeting….

The District prides itself on providing a multitude of enrichment activities for students, including school-sponsored field trips throughout the year.

For the 2016-17 school year, the District allocated funds within the adopted budget to expand enrichment opportunities for students, which included full funding for all school-related field trips.

Each year, the District reviews its policies and practices in an effort to best serve our student body, while also being financially prudent with taxpayer dollars. That said, the District has allotted significantly less funding in the 2017-18 budget for school sponsored trips. Although we have, and will continue to financially support these excursions, funding will only support the educational components of the trip, and may not include logistical planning such as food, transportation and lodging.

The District recognizes the cultural and social benefits field trips offer our students and we will continue to engage students in hands-on learning experiences.

As always, we appreciate the fundraising work of our students, community and parent groups that assist us in reaching our academic goals.

RE-INTERPRETING REGULATIONS TO JUSTIFY SPENDING OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. Spoken like true Progressives. Who are they b.s.ing?

There is nothing cultural or educational about Disney World unless one considers Disney’s discrimination actions against an American workforce. Case in point, the layoffs of an American workforce to replace them with a foreign workforce through the H-1B visa program. [Save that discussion for another day.]

As for those living in the same school district, protest the increase in property taxes.

New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio gets no credit for downtown Brooklyn, New York as it is today. What you see in the above photograph came about because of Michael Bloomberg, building fever throughout the City.

What Commie de Blasio can take credit for is the transportation mess he has created downtown Brooklyn and throughout the City of New York with his over-regulated Vision Zero agenda.

Downtown Brooklyn has always experienced traffic jams 24/7 but that last thing any New Yorker would have imagined is that the congestion could get worse.

Enter de Blasio and Progressive bike lanes where they need not be and the over-regulation of everything that breathes or moves in the City.

Unable to spend their way into a progressive future, Democratic mayors have turned to regulation as a panacea.

Democrats currently govern most major American cities and face no serious Republican challenges in any of them. Of the 50 largest cities in the United States, only 13 have Republican mayors. Surprisingly, while urban areas have been turning deep blue, Democratic city governments have not been increasing their spending as much as most people think. Massive debt and poor revenue growth have forced urban Democrats to find a more austere pathway to satisfying their progressive ambitions. They have found it in regulation. By legislating how businesses can conduct themselves, whom they can hire, what they must provide, and much else, Democrats in local governments are transforming the new urban progressive agenda into a regulatory agenda. Because of this, even as these politicians tout their imposed correctives for sluggish growth and inequality, we should expect increased stagnation and growing inequality in the coming years. If Democrats continue to expand regulations, the urban economy will be even less accommodating to small businesses and entrepreneurs than it is alread. And as these economic engines stall, opportunities for the poor and immigrant classes will dry up. The liberal appetite for the imposition of local regulation, like the appetite for spending it has supplanted, will usher in a new chapter in the history of unintended policy consequences. And, once again, the worst-off among us will pay the highest price.[…]Continue Reading — The Disastrous New Urban Agenda

Wouldn’t it be nice to be a laid-off auto worker or an outsourced, unemployed Disney worker to have Uncle Sam ferry you to billionaireville (that’s Davos to us) for a Swiss skiing holiday and a chance to job-hunt among 1,500 of the world’s top CEOs.

That’s what the political class, particularly from the White House, is perking itself with these days as a whole lot of them, with questionable official reasons to be there, suddenly descend on the Swiss ski resort to talk green energy, global governance, synergies, convergences and other trendy hip topics popular with the jet-set[…]

All of the above in addition to five U. S. senators and eight congressmen, among them Kevin McCarthy, Congress Majority Leader will be skiing and hobnobbing with global elitists courtesy of the American taxpayer.

The National Institutes of Health is spending more than $400,000 sending text messages to Latino men to encourage them to exercise. The University of California, San Diego is conducting the study, which is attempting to employ the “low-cost” strategy of using cell phones to reach Mexican-Americans. “Mexican-American men report high rates of inactivity and related health conditions. The proposed study seeks to promote physical activity among this at-risk, understudied population by developing interactive and […]

The Great Immensity, a musical described as ‘painfully long‘ and ‘awkward,’ was made possible by a $697,177 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

‘The play, which featured songs and video exploring Americans’ relationships to the environment, opened in New York in April with a three-week run before going on a national tour that was supposed to attract 75,000 patrons,’ FoxNews.comreported. ‘But it stalled after a single production in Kansas City, falling short of the lofty goals outlined in a grant proposal….’

A plan to house hundreds of illegal immigrant children at a multimillion-dollar hotel complex in Texas was scuttled after the prospect of taxpayers footing the bill for luxury lodging proved too much of a public relations obstacle.

BCFS, previously known as Baptist Child and Family Services, which has a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to run camps at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Fort Sill in Oklahoma, had a deal to buy the Palm Aire Hotel in Weslaco, Texas, for $3.8 million….